10 replies to this topic

[Wumpus]

I came across this pretty good interview the other day at 9 to 5 Mac with Aspyr. They talk about the porting process, the app store, future of Mac and more. Its pretty good.

http://9to5mac.com/2...ands-2-giveaway

[Thain Esh Kelch]

And, Borderlands 2 give away!

[Matt Diamond]

You're right, that was a good interview. Some decent questions, nice to see Aspyr getting some of their mojo back.

Whenever I see the words "Aspyr interview" I automatically think it's going to be Glenda Adams. :-)  I suppose it will sink in one day.

[MacgamerHQ]

I really liked it too. I think it was enlightening to learn a little bit more about Aspyr. After all, they play a key role in mac gaming's "industry". I always wondered how they went about choosing a game to port and making it happen for example.

The only thing that bothered me (just a little) was that Aspyr didn't seem open to share specifics. For example it would have been cool to get an estimate of their yearly business worth? An indication of how many games they are planning on bringing this year?

[Wumpus]

Pretty sure most business don't give out their yearly worth unless its some big corporation or whatever

Aspyr has a tendency to be more tight lipped than Feral (at least with me, i have NDA's with both) and I do believe that applies in general. Feral has their upcoming games radar which always gives you an idea. Aspyr has a way of surprising us with games a week or two before they come out. Every company has their own way of releasing things. I think they have to be careful about releasing too many details, or they feel they do, which I can understand/respect. Either way, Aspyr is a grand bunch of folks and I enjoy what they do for us mac gamers.

[Matt Diamond]

Regarding the secrecy, I believe this has changed over time. Aspyr, like others at the time, used to announce many of their games well in advance. They also used to tease people by revealing just the codename they assigned to each project. Now Feral is the one that does the teasing, though they seem to wait until near the end to reveal the title.

[Hansi]

Wumpus, on 21 January 2013 - 10:54 AM, said:

Pretty sure most business don't give out their yearly worth unless its some big corporation or whatever

Aspyr has a tendency to be more tight lipped than Feral (at least with me, i have NDA's with both) and I do believe that applies in general. Feral has their upcoming games radar which always gives you an idea. Aspyr has a way of surprising us with games a week or two before they come out. Every company has their own way of releasing things. I think they have to be careful about releasing too many details, or they feel they do, which I can understand/respect. Either way, Aspyr is a grand bunch of folks and I enjoy what they do for us mac gamers.

It's pretty much a win and lose situation to disseminate the information early. If they do it too early they get lip for slow release cycle but might prevent people from buying the Windows version and wait instead.

[MacgamerHQ]

I see what you mean guys but I think you can be more transparent and still "win". Most business today could use a little more transparency .

Just to clarigy, my comments here are not at all pointed towards Aspyr at all. I respect and am a big fan of what they are doing for the mac gaming community.

I also agree with Hansi, if they gave a little more info on release dates, they could win a couple of customers.

[Aspyr-Blair]

Sorry to be late to this conversation, but I wanted to let you all know that transparency is a big initiative for us this year.  We may not always be able to give a long heads up on what we are working on, but we can give better insight into how/what we do and I think posts from the community like this prove that its a goal worth taking on.

Just wanted you all to know how much we appreciate the support and suggestions.  

[ltcommander.data]

Quote

We are certainly exploring alternatives to that model with both iOS -> Mac opportunities, and Mac -> iOS opportunities, with the continued focus on great brands and experiences. We hope to be able to talk about this more very soon.

Sounds like they are definitely working on something iOS related. Since it should be easier to port from iOS to Mac so I don't think iOS developers need to hire a porting house to do it, I'm guessing Aspyr is working to port a Mac game to iOS, perhaps one of their existing titles. Given how liberal LucasArts is with cross-platform support and re-releases for their games, I'm guessing it might be a Star Wars title, maybe Knights of the Old Republic seeing pausing mechanic should make things less hectic and a better fit for mobile.

[MacgamerHQ]

Aspyr-Blair, on 13 February 2013 - 09:25 AM, said:

Sorry to be late to this conversation, but I wanted to let you all know that transparency is a big initiative for us this year.  We may not always be able to give a long heads up on what we are working on, but we can give better insight into how/what we do and I think posts from the community like this prove that its a goal worth taking on.

Just wanted you all to know how much we appreciate the support and suggestions.  

Great to hear this

I will be the first one to say that you are doing a great job bringing more and more games to the Mac. However, I do think more transparency would be a good thing, and specially building more hype to the games you bring. Aspyr has stroke huge deals lately (Borderlands 2 only 2-3 months after orginal release), why not make a BIG deal of it?? After all, it is a big deal!